


Do you wanna build a snowman

by desiderium



Category: Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-22 01:02:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3709235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desiderium/pseuds/desiderium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-despair.<br/>Hinata decides to stay at the Hope's Peak building during the holiday vacation. One day, Komaeda knocks on his door with a ridiculous proposal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do you wanna build a snowman

**Author's Note:**

> You guess right, this was supposed to be a Christmas drabble, but there's nothing very christmas-ish in it, so -shrugs-   
> Please enjoy c:

               Slowly, his mind starts waking up. He can’t find the strength to open his eyes just yet. Right now, it feels like they just opened for a second. He’s almost sure that he saw a part of...wherever he is for one second, and then they fell once more. His consciousness was up already, but in a moment, he’d be up for real.

_Five more minutes._

In five more minutes, he’d start on whatever this day has for him. 

                Before the time is up, though, he hears a knocking sound and lets out a soft groan. He opens his eyes, and drowsily stares at his room, then down at his body. The blankets no longer cover his body; they’re barely covering his feet now. He shivers as he feels the cold wind of the morning and wishes that he could wrap himself again in those covers and go back to sleep, but then he checks the clock on the wall. It’s almost 8 o’clock. It’s an hour later than his usual wake up time, but these are holiday vacations; there is no wake up time.

                He yawns and rubs his eyes as he sits up straight and walks to the door. Before opening, he asks who it is. Why did he keep on doing that? He wasn’t at home, where the people knocking on his door could be absolutely anyone, his friends, his parents, or a completely stranger to whom he may not have something to say to. Here, at Kibougamine, he could only meet students, teachers, and staff, the latter being the least probable, though.

                "Hinata-kun, it’s Komaeda."

                Komaeda...Nagito Komaeda, right? One of the Super High School Level Students from the main campus. Did he come all the way to the west district just to knock on his door?

                Even now that he knows whom it is he decides not to open the door. He and Komaeda weren’t classmates. He was one of the _real_ students, selected by the academy; Hinata wasn’t. Besides, he didn’t him want to see him in his pajamas— not that there was anything embarrassing about them, but why should he? If he had the option not to show himself in front of anyone while looking indecent, then he’d take it.

                "What is it, Komaeda?" Hinata replies.

                "It snowed during the night. The courtyard at the main campus is completely covered in snow, Hinata-kun!" Komaeda beams.  

                Did it really snow? Hinata turns his head to the window and looks at it with weary eyes. The glass is frozen and there was a small amount of snow piled on the mark. It reminds him of how the snow would get stucked back at his home bedroom’s window. On snowy days, he would always stay at home. At home, he could be neutral, not too cold, and not too hot. He preferred it that way.

                Hinata wonders what to say as he lays his tired face against the door. Why was Komaeda telling him that? Did he want someone to play in the snow with him? Weren’t they too old for that?

                “I can see that.” he replies tiredly.

                “Hinata-kun…”

                “What is it?”

                “Do you want to build a snowman?”

A snowman? Hinata raises an eyebrow.

                He’s never built a snowman before. He used to watch the other kids try it, though, when he was younger. He would watch them, from one of the windows, as they all cheerfully began to gather the snow, bragging about who would build the biggest and coolest snowman. Then he’d come back later to the window to check on their progress just to find them sitting on the ground, frustrated, or not there at all, meaning that they had given up. Apparently, building a snowman wasn’t as easy as TV portrayed it.

                And now, Komaeda wanted him to go through that.

                “I can’t help you with that.”

                “Why not?”

                Hinata yawns, rubbing his temples. “Do you even know how to build a snowman?”

                Komaeda laughs carelessly. “No, I don’t. I’ve never tried it before, that’s why I want to try now!” At this, Hinata can’t help to wonder if Komaeda was doing it on purpose, sounding like a child to get him to agree; or if at his age he was really that excited to build a snowman and play in the snow.

                “Then it’s impossible if you don’t know.”

                “Oh.”

                There’s silence for about a minute. Hinata presses his ear against the door to check for Komaeda’s leaving footsteps, but he hears nothing. Thinking that maybe Komaeda understood his statement he walks away from the door to the closet to pick his clothes. However, Komaeda’s voice stops him.

                “But wouldn’t you like to see me try, Hinata-kun?”

                Hinata rolls his eyes. “What would be the point in that?”

                “The point…there isn’t.”

                “Then why would I go?” he replies, already starting to get a little frustrated.

                He barely knew the guy. Why would he ask an almost stranger to build a snowman with him? More importantly, why is he at the school? It’s the holidays, so the school gave all of its students, even at the reserve course, time off to go home…although; staying in school during the holidays wasn’t anything strange either. The school allowed students to stay here during the holidays if they preferred so. And it seemed that, just like Hinata, Komaeda had made the same choice.

                Hinata had a good reason to stay in school during the holidays, though. His teachers had assigned them a ton of work for the holidays and on top of that, he had a few late projects. He would go home to his family for a few days, of course, but he wanted feeling of guilt of having work to do to be somewhat eased by the time he saw them.

                Fine. Say that Komaeda stayed in school during the holidays because he had a lot of homework as well. It wouldn’t come off as strange. Given that he is from the main school, his class must be a lot more work than Hinata’s. Still, that didn’t answer his question of why Komaeda wanted to build a snowman with _him,_ of all people, nor the point in watching him _try_. Surely, there must be someone else at the main campus who also decided to stay and to whom he can ask.

                There’s silence again. Maybe Komaeda ran into someone and asked them instead. Well, it didn’t seem like his problem anymore, so he might as well get dressed and walk out of his room.  He chooses his usual black pants and white, short-sleeved, buttons shirt, but he trades the tie for a scarf.

                Before leaving the room, he stops and stares at his winter coat. He can be warm enough with the clothes he’s wearing and a scarf inside the building, but if he goes out, he’ll definitely need the coat. If he goes out, he’ll definitely meet Komaeda and he’ll make him stay, but if he doesn’t take it, he’ll be limited to the building’s warm corridors.  

                _Limited_. Yet another word he can add to the list of things he hates. Letting out a sigh, he grabs it and passes his arms through the holes. He doesn’t bother to zip it up and walks out the door.

                “You look well equipped, Hinata-kun.”

                His heart jumps and he immediately turns around, only to find Komaeda leaning against the wall.

                “Could it be that you changed your mind?” Komaeda smiles.

                “Komaeda! What the hell!?” he exclaimed, his heart calming down by the second. Had he been waiting for him? He’s wearing a scarf too, but his winter coat looks thinner than Hinata’s, and he’s also wearing gloves. For the snowman, he supposes.

                “Were you planning on going out?” Komaeda asks.

                “Were you waiting for me?” Hinata exclaims. He didn’t intend for his voice to sound as surprised or as frustrated as it did, but he couldn’t help it.

                Komaeda doesn’t say anything; he just straightens his back and starts walking to where Hinata is. He looks at him as if saying that he’s ready if Hinata is.

                “I was going to get breakfast.” Hinata says to fill the silence between them and walks ahead. Komaeda follows. Maybe he’s getting breakfast too. It’s morning and he can’t stop him from that.

                “What about after?” Komaeda asks.

                “I have homework that I have to finish.”

                “Ah right, I forgot that the reserve department is more strict on you.” he shrugs. “Well, I’m pretty sure that if you ‘tried your best’ and ‘worked hard for it’, you might get somewhere decent, worthy of _some_ admiration, and that would bring excellence and even more prestige to this school. Maybe they’ll realize that that implementing the reserve course wasn’t a bad idea after all, and they’ll keep on doing it, then more common people, like you, can achieve greatness to an extent.”

                “…”

                “Don’t get me wrong. Sure it’s good for common people to believe that they’ll get anywhere in life. But Kibougamine’s greatest achievement is its work at nurturing the talent of those born with the seed of hope; it is the reason for its prestige and the reason why the citizens have been admiring it for generations. The Academy will not be remembered for getting common people to common places.”

                Hinata closes his hand on a fist, so hard that he feels his fingernails clawing at his hand, and he feels as if his face was on fire. As the other talks, he shoots a disgusted glance at him. It’s taking almost all of his strength not to punch him in the stomach. Part of him hopes Komaeda doesn’t notice how he’s feelings, but another part of him wishes for him to notice that he’s gloating, and that he might get punched for it.

                He’s still wrapping his mind as to why he would say something like that unexpectedly. He has no right to call him like that. Komaeda’s Super High School Level title isn’t even a real talent to begin with. Super High School Level Good Luck.  He’s just a random guy with a very convenient luck.

                _But at the end of the day, Komaeda_ is _officially a Super High School Level_ , he thinks, while Hinata is just a nobody from the reserve course.

                 “You don’t have work to finish?” Hinata snaps.

                “It’s all done.” he answers indifferently. But Hinata is actually impressed. He hasn’t known Komaeda for a long time, but during their brief encounters, he’s had difficulties in guessing his character. However, he does admit to himself that he would have never passed him off as a top student. Perhaps he shouldn’t pass him as that kind of person just yet. He barely knows him, and the only thing he’s certain of, is that he’s unpredictable.  

                 “I wonder if the assignments you get and I get are, in its essence, the same thing. We look about the same age.” he says glancing at Hinata for a second.  

                “It can’t be. You said it yourself; the reserve course gets more work.” Hinata says, his voice showing a hint of annoyance. He just talked about himself as part of the reserve course. He can’t help but to cringe every time he thinks of himself as part of it, but not because he hates them. He doesn’t hate them. He’s sure of that, not the students, or the teachers or the Kibougamine staff for implementing the reserve department. He hates the look that he gets whenever they find out that he belongs to the reserve course, as if he’s an animal at the verge of extinction and if they don’t glance now, they’ll never see anything like it ever again. Sometimes they’re straight up to his face about it, but he, and the reserve department, will always be topic to gossip.

                “But I’m not on the reserve course. You are. I was just making a fair guess.”

                Hinata frowns; he can’t help to think that Komaeda just read his mind, and said that to tease him.

                Grunting, Hinata rolls his eyes and stops to look at Komaeda. “Komaeda, is this why you were waiting outside my room? To ask me about the reserve course?” he demands. Komaeda’s eyes widen, but Hinata believes that he’s being oblivious. “If you finished your assignments and have all these questions about the reserve course, then go ahead,” he gestures the way from where they came. “You know your way to the reserve department, so go ask the teachers all these questions and make your own damn comparisons with them.”

                Komaeda only laughs, as if everything that Hinata just said was a joke. “You got it wrong, Hinata-kun. Didn’t I say so? I told you I wanted to build a snowman. I’m not really interested in the reserve course as it is; I was just making small talk.” After saying that, Komaeda walks away.

                 This whole conversation had just been fun material for him. He can feel his cheeks burning because he actually believed his interest for the reserve department. How is he even acquaintances with a guy like him?

*****

                On the day he met Komaeda, one of his teachers asked him to drop off some papers to the main building’s administration office. It was a long way road, as it was at the opposite side of the school. He could only guess what those papers were; grades, reports, schedules, but he didn’t ask; he just obeyed. It must have been because he had always wanted to visit the main campus given that the reserve students couldn’t walk in without permission. With these papers, he could at least satisfy a little bit his curiosity.

                It took him a while, and a little help from one person walking by (they weren’t a student, so they must have been a teacher or a staff member) to reach the administration office. Luckily, for him, that person didn’t ask anything about Hinata himself. Once he reached the office, he dropped off the papers to the secretary and thought of returning directly to his side of the building. However, that thought didn’t last for long and so he told himself that he wanted to do a little tour around. He told himself that as long as he didn’t do anything to stand out, and only stayed there for a few minutes, nothing bad would happen.

                The administration office was located next to the cafeteria, so he decided to peek inside. The size of it was at least twice larger than the one they had on his side, back at the reserve department. Well, it was only to be expected. When he got out of the cafeteria, he spotted a person wearing the school’s uniform, a student, coming his way, or perhaps, he was going to the cafeteria. Trying not to make eye contact or to look anxious, he passed in front of him, dismissing the sensation that he was staring at him, and for a few moment, he thought he’d made it. But he was wrong and the student called out a ‘ _Hey!’_ that could have only been addressed to Hinata.

                The student had white disheveled hair and a carefree smile. He was sharp enough not to instantly recognize that Hinata wasn’t from here despite that they wore the same uniform; and so he introduced himself as Nagito Komaeda, the Super High School Level Good Luck of the 77th class.

                “I’m Hajime Hinata. I’m from the reserve department. I only came here to deliver some papers to the administration office.” he said, knowing to add that extra information in case Komaeda asked.

                For a moment, Hinata could have sworn that Komaeda’s expression switched to disdain as soon as he mentioned the reserve department. It only lasted a moment, but his piercing eyes felt as if he could pulverize him with only a frown. Then he switched back to the carefree smile with which he introduced himself as.

                “I’ve always been curious about the reserve department.” Komaeda said. “Do you think maybe I can go back with you and you can show me?”

                Hinata was taken aback by what Komaeda said. He couldn’t believe someone would have an interest in the reserve department, even less someone from the main school. He had only just met Komaeda but that look he shot him a while ago still sent shivers down his back. He wasn’t sure what kind of person the Super High School Level Good Luck might be and he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to find out.

                Politely, Hinata declined his request explaining that he had to go back to his side of the building for his next class, and so he left.

                He ran into Komaeda a few more times after that. Whenever that happened, he greeted Hinata from a distance with such a friendly face that everybody else ended up staring at the scene and whispered to each other (and to Hinata) about the white haired boy’s identity; to which Hinata responded that he was just an acquaintance. Whenever they met, Komaeda asked many questions about his classes, schedules, teachers, classmates, and his assigned dorm. Their meetings didn’t last long so every meeting only served to talk about one topic. Every once in a while, Komaeda blurted out a rather denoting comment about the reserve department, and Hinata remembered those piercing eyes and ignored him completely until the subject changed.

                Despite meeting several times, Hinata wasn’t sure if he could call Komaeda his friend, but more like, someone to be careful with what you said. In addition, most (if not every times) times that the main campus was mentioned, Komaeda would break into an obsessive speech about hope. He’d ramble about how the chosen students were those born with the seeds of talent that would become the beacon of hope for this country. Then, as if his speaking pattern could not get intense enough, he’d start babbling about him being the lowest of the filthiest garbage ever encountered and that his talent was worthless. Whenever these happened, Hinata had to remind himself to play it cool around Komaeda, even though his mood swings were what made him mostly uncomfortable.

*****

                At the cafeteria, Hinata removed his coat since it was warm enough, but he has to put it back on now that he finished his breakfast and has to go back to the freezing corridors. He had breakfast all by himself. There were a few more people in the cafeteria, others that for some reason were staying at the building during the holiday as well. Among them, he recognized one of his teachers, to whom he greeted when he got in, but didn’t sit next to him. He also spotted two other students but they weren’t on any of his classes, perhaps they were younger, so they mutually ignored each other.       

                Technically, he wouldn’t be staying at the Academy for the entire two weeks of holiday. He would get to spend Christmas day and New Year’s with his family. Usually, they received invitations to their friends’ party, and Hinata would go with them since he’s friends with some of the sons of their parents’ friends. When the holiday began, his parents asked him to come home for the two weeks of holiday and told him that he could easily finish his homework at home, but he refused. At home, he would procrastinate most likely; here he would focus. Working hard is the only thing that he can do to pay off his parents’ efforts getting him here.

                Before going back to study, he decides that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go for a walk around the building for a while. That is, until he walks in front of the courtyard and feels a breeze that almost blows away his unbuttoned coat. Hinata shivers and proceeds to button his coat and fix his scarf. Inevitably, he looks to the side. The courtyard was white, as if someone let a huge white blanket fall all over the grass, the trees, the benches, and the floor. He doesn’t mean to stare because he’s not too fond of the snow, but he ends up doing it anyways.

                Hinata’s ready now to leave the threshold when he hears footsteps. That has to be Komaeda building up his snowman. Komaeda said he didn’t know how to make one, so it makes Hinata curious as to how he’s holding up. Part of him, the part that wants to satisfy his curiosity, and check on how he’s doing, but then he thinks of his homework and it is evident which weighs more on his list. He lets out a sigh but before he can turn around, back to his duties, his, and Komaeda’s glances meet, giving him enough time to recognize Hinata.

                Hinata reacts when it’s too late and he instantly feels stupid for getting distracted with the sight and his dumb curiosity. Before he can even move, Komaeda is already waving at him. Hinata doesn’t. And why would he? They’re not friends. Did Komaeda think of them as friends?

                Komaeda is not coming this way, but by now, Hinata had already lost his chance to leave unnoticed. Apparently, Komaeda takes their eye contact as an invitation to come closer. As he does, Hinata can’t help to stare at his bare hands, which have traces of snow in them and have taken a slight purple color. Why isn’t he wearing any gloves if he’s building a snowman? His hands must be freezing.

                “Hinata-kun,” he says. “You too got caught by it, didn’t you?” he stands beside him and stares at the courtyard with hopeful eyes.

                He’s assuming that he’s talking about the snow-coated courtyard, but he doesn’t reply; he doesn’t want to have this kind of conversation with him. “Aren’t you freezing building that snowman without gloves?” he asks instead, looking back at his hands.

                Komaeda’s eyes open wide and stare at Hinata as if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about until he follows where Hinata is looking at and it all comes to him. “Ah, yes, they’re freezing” he puts his hands in his coat’s pockets. “But the gloves were getting in the way of handling the snow how I wanted to, so I took them off.”

                Is he thinking more about the snowman’s sake than his own?

                “Hinata-kun, are you sure you don’t want to admire the snow from a closer distance?”

                Well, it seems like he has a chance now to satisfy that curious thought. Besides, he doesn’t have anything to lose if he stays a little while, or so he says to himself. As usual, he reminds himself to be careful with what he says.

                “Fine.” Hinata answers and follows Komaeda as he, enthusiastically, goes back to piling more snow. He clears the snow off one of the benches, and sits down. When he does, he feels the cold reaching every part of his body. He trembles and brings his coat closer to him, wraps his scarf tighter, and hides his hands in his pockets, hunching as if trying to hug himself. His teeth chatter and he has to remind himself not to shake too violently, as much as he wants to create some source of heat for himself.

                The only thing that can distract him now is Komaeda’s almost snowman. So far, it seems like he has only managed to gather a large amount of snow, but that’s all it is; piled up snow. Hinata is no expert, but it doesn’t look like Komaeda is any closer to finish his snowman. His thoughts drift away to Komaeda’s strange enthusiasm, and wonder why he invited him here. He’s definitely not his friend, but more of a random person who talked to him one day has an apparent interest in them being friends, or at least, that’s what he thinks.        

                The scene in front of him is a funny one. Komaeda tries to roll the pile of snow he had but it’s getting him nowhere. If Hinata was feeling more at ease, and not about to freeze to death, he would have laughed. The pile of snow falls apart, leaving Komaeda in a sort of state of shock, as if he has to process what just happened. Nevertheless, he doesn’t look worried or very shocked; actually, he doesn’t even look cold. Meanwhile Hinata wishes he had a thicker coat.

                “Have you ever built a snowman, Hinata-kun?” Komaeda asks.

                “No, I haven’t.” his voice shakes, and somehow his brain continues the conversation. “Why haven’t you ever built one?”

_Shit! It’s cold._

                “I never had the chance” Komaeda says and then sits on the ground— on the snow. Hinata cringes at the sight. How can he? “Right now with almost nobody at school it seemed like the perfect plan.” He chuckles and smiles back at Hinata. “The only fail in my plan was that there’s nobody to teach me how to make one. It is every kid’s dream to make one of these, isn’t it?”

                “I guess.”

                Then Komaeda starts gathering snow around him until he has a handful of it. He takes it in his hands (his bare hands) and places it somewhere else. He shapes the snow into a ball, stands up, and proceeds to roll the snowball slowly along the snowy patch. As it rolls, the snowball grows larger and larger. He watched Komaeda roll the snowball for a while until it looks thick and coarse enough to be the base.

                “And why haven’t you?” Komaeda asks when he’s done with the base.

                And that’s when Hinata realizes that he had been so engrossed watching Komaeda rolling that snowball that it managed to take his mind away from the cold weather for a while. Komaeda practically dragged him back to reality with his question. He looks up. “Have…what?” Hinata stutters. He’s shaking so hard that he didn’t hear the entire question.

                 “Built a snowman.”

                Hinata doesn’t answer. He’s too busy shaking and asking himself why he’s here.

                “If you’re really cold, you should walk around. It doesn’t help to just be sitting down.” Komaeda stands up and wipes some of the snow off his pants. He searches in his pockets, takes out a pair of gloves, and hands them to Hinata. “It’s all I can offer you at the moment.”

                Hinata eyes at the gloves, and then back at Komaeda. “Wh— what?” he tries to exclaim. “You’re the…the one making the snow…man! You should be wearing those!” he scolds him— or tries to.

                “But I’m not wearing them, so here.” Komaeda leaves the gloves next to him and goes to sit next to base of the snowman. “By the way, I asked why you haven’t ever made a snowman before.”

                Hinata watches the gloves for a while, completely ignoring Komaeda, trembling, teeth chattering, thinking all the curse words he knows, before finally giving up and putting on the gloves. His hands are a little warmer after putting them. They feel as if they could survive longer than a minute being out in the cold, but it feels warmer if he keeps them in his pockets. He looks back at Komaeda without saying anything; he only stares as he gathers more snow.

                He takes up on his advice, stands up, immediately feeling a cold breeze, and shudders. He shuts his eyes closed and hunches as he waits for it to pass. Still trembling, he tells himself that he’s going to walk it off, however, walking around can only last him enough before he starts looking like an idiot. He looks around to check for any people being close, but there aren’t. The only one who could think of him as an idiot for walking around would be Komaeda, but he was the one who told him to do that. In any case, he’s ready in case Komaeda decides to blurt out anything about how ridiculous Hinata looks by pointlessly walking around.

                He’s looking at the floor while he walks, at his feet and the snow footprints he’s leaving in no specific pattern, at his breath as it comes out of his mouth. Sometimes he takes out his hands from his pockets, and opens and closes his fingers several times to regain mobility. Then he puts his hands back in his pockets. Now that he’s warming up a little, the cloud that wasn’t letting him think is starting to dissipate and he remembers that Komaeda asked him a question. Komaeda even repeated it. He asked him why he hadn’t built a snowman before.

                “I don’t like the snow very much.” Hinata says. His voice doesn’t shake this time and he’s feeling proud of it.

                When he doesn’t hear an answer, he raises up his head only to find Komaeda extremely engrossed in getting the new snowball to a larger size, rolling it across the courtyard. Logically, this one should be smaller than the first one since it’s the middle of the snowman. However, he can’t help to feel impressed. He’s looking at the scene of Komaeda rolling the snowball with eyes wide open and he even stops walking around. In less than fifteen minutes, Komaeda would have his second snowball.

                His mind drifts to his childhood days when he used to watch the other kids try to make a snowman for hours and not achieving the snowball for the base. Then he tries to think how it’s possible for someone who claimed that he had never built a snowman, to get almost all of the work done in less than an hour. However, keeping in mind the little things he knows about Komaeda, there’s only one possible answer. He lied.  Or maybe that snowman is set to fall apart within seconds after he places the middle snowball on top of the base.

                Now that he has warmed up some, he doesn’t keep on walking, and he only keeps his arms folded in front of his chest. Meanwhile, Komaeda grabs the, now larger, snowball from the ground and places it on top of the base snowball. To Hinata’s surprise, the snowman stays firm.

                “There. Almost done.” Komaeda says and wipes off snow on his pants. He’s looking at Hinata now. “You were saying?”

                “Komaeda, you’re almost done with the snowman.” he says, “I thought you didn’t know how to make one. You’re about to finish one in less than an hour.”

                Komaeda glances at his snowman as if he doesn’t know what to expect of it and then he just laughs. “I bet it’s so terribly made that it will fall apart as soon as I place the head. What do you think, Hinata-kun?”

                Hinata shrugs. “I don’t know. Like I told you, I’ve never built one.”

                “But you sound like you knew that it was hard, or else you wouldn’t know that it’s taken me less time than it takes the average person to make a snowman.”

                “I don’t know how to make one.” he affirms. “But when I was younger I saw other kids try for hours and they never got anywhere near to where you are.”

                Komaeda smiles. “See? It does take the average person more time. We’re all Super High School Levels in here.” he pauses. “In my case, though, I’m just extremely lucky.”

                Hinata is not sure of what Komaeda meant with that last sentence. He paused, and then as if he read his mind, as if he knew that Hinata was going to bounce back with a comment about him not being a _real_ Super High School Level, he added the part about him being lucky.

                Well, Komaeda _is_ lucky. He gets to be treated the way Hinata’s always wanted to; with respect, with pride, and he is not looked down for being average deep inside. 

                “Hinata-kun, would you like to place the head of the snowman?” Komaeda is now front of him holding another snowball the size of a head. He glances at the unfinished snowman, then back at Komaeda’s hands. His bare hands have been handling the snow all this time. He must be freezing.

                “Not really.”

                “Please, Hinata-kun” Komaeda says. Hinata notices how Komaeda’s hands are slightly shaking from holding the snow without gloves. It feels painful to watch, honestly. “I wouldn’t feel good to have brought you here just watch me.”

                Without saying anything, he takes the snowball from his hands. It’s not that big of a snowball, but he can feel the cold of it running through his arms and chest from holding it. He’s not sure how heavy the snowball he’s holding needs to feel, but he can only guess that he has to be careful when placing the snowball on top of the other one, and so he does. Luckily, Komaeda made sure to make this snowman somewhat small. With its head on, the snowman’s height reached a little bit higher than his waist. Hinata backs away from, wiping off the remaining snow off his hands, and he notices that he’s still wearing Komaeda’s gloves, so he takes them off and hands them back to him.

                “Thanks.” he mutters.

                “Ah thank you, Hinata-kun!” Komaeda smiles as he puts them back on. “I was freezing without these.”

                Hinata stares back at Komaeda in shock. “But you lend them to me!”

                “Well, you were shaking really hard.” he chuckles. Komaeda walks away from the snowman to admire it from a distance. He takes one short look at the snowman and then says, “Thanks for helping me out Hinata-kun!” he calls out as he leaves.

                “What?” Hinata exclaims, but it’s too late already. Komaeda’s gone.

                Unbelievable. Komaeda made this decent looking snowman in less than an hour, and he doesn’t even bother to be proud of it. What is this guy thinking? Hinata lets out a sigh. His hands are freezing again so he puts them back into his pockets and steps back to admire the snowman that Komaeda made.

                “He didn’t even finish it.”

                The snowman’s missing a face, arms, and a hat. He looks around for something he can use to make up for those and picks up a few pebbles. These can serve as the eyes and the buttons.  He places one pebble where the right eye is supposed to go and before he can even process what happens, the head falls apart and one part of it falls to the ground. His jaw drops and he’s frozen. The only thing he’s able to do is to stare at the fallen snow in disbelief.

                “What the heck!?”

                For some reason, Komaeda’s words show up in his mind.

_“I bet it’s so terribly made that it will fall apart as soon as I place the head.”_

                He did it on purpose.

                Hinata takes one look at the snowman with the destroyed head and the pebble on top of it, and then back at the few pebbles in his hand. Letting out a sigh, he strokes the nape of his neck and tosses the pebbles to the ground. Without looking back at the snowman, he exits the courtyard. He has homework waiting for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Komaeda didn't do it on purpose -laughs- he built the snowman so fast and it fell apart so easily because of his luck.


End file.
